Paavo Järvi conquers Shostakovich's Leningrad

By Hugo Shirley, 08 November 2016

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“it’s difficult to imagine a more musical account of this great symphonic edifice”

Reviewed at Philharmonie: Großer Saal, Berlin on 7 November 2016

Beethoven, Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor, Op.37

Shostakovich, Symphony no. 7 in C major, "Leningrad" Op.60

Paavo Järvi, Conductor

Radu Lupu, Piano

Staatskapelle Berlin

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***11

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*****

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****1

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**111

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Low on laughs: Die schweigsame Frau in Berlin

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Hugo Shirley

Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic in the UK, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and has a PhD in musicology from King's College London, where his thesis focused on Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Paavo Järvi conquers Shostakovich's Leningrad with the Staatskapelle